This brings our list of the top cheap gaming laptops under $500 to a close. For those with a few more dollars to spend be sure to head over to our other guides covering the best gaming laptops for more powerful machines that will up the ante and take your gaming experience to the next level. If you’re looking for some new games to download in wait for your new machine our guides to the best free MMORPGs and best paid MMORPGs might help kill the time, or if you are an action lover our guide to the best FPS games for some trigger relaxation. Check back soon for more awesome laptop deals and gaming glory.
In our chart at the top of this article and in our list below, we've mapped out our top-rated models to investigate. Note that a few of the configurations sent to us for testing were a bit above $1,000; some remain so, while others have fallen below the one-grand line since. Also, note that most of these models are a single version of a machine in a varied line. So use the linked reviews as guidelines, not absolutes, when assessing each laptop family. You may not get quite the level of performance we did, if key components were downgraded in the march below $1,000. But you should get a solid idea of the laptops' screen, build, and input quality from our reviews.
The Lenovo Legion Y530 lasted 5 hours, 4 minutes in our Web-browsing battery test—about half an hour short of the Dell G7, Dell G5, and HP Pavilion 15t, but longer than any other contenders. That isn’t long enough for the Y530 to survive a full day of work or classes, but gaming laptops aren’t known for their battery life, and the Y530 is still one of the most portable options.
Gabe Carey is a Junior Analyst at PCMag specializing in peripherals, storage and the systems that power them. Prior to joining this website, he was an ardent freelance reporter for Digital Trends and TechRadar, though his most noteworthy accomplishment was racking up over 15,000 signatures on a petition to change the national anthem to Sonic Advent... See Full Bio
The ASUS ROG GL502VS-DB71 is a midrange laptop that’s powered by the GTX 1070. It is designed offer an incredible gaming experience to users, although its slight overclocking tendency limits its optimum performance. Since Nvidia’s introduction of the GeForce GTX 10-range GPUs for laptops, they have been gaining positive grounds even with gaming desktops. The ROG GL502VS is among the newest entrants, and it features, alongside the GTX 1070 GPU with Pascal style; a sixth-generation Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB system memory.
Ross Rubin of Fast Company featured insights from Andrew Coonrad regarding the mechanical gaming keyboard market in his feature article, “The Mechanical Keyboards Of Yesteryear Are Back - And Better Than Ever.” Ross shared, “while dozens of small keyboard makers make only mechanical keyboards aimed largely at the video game market, Logitech is a keyboard giant that caters to a market beyond purists.
Most gaming laptops—including budget machines—have comfortable, deep-travel keyboards that cushion your fingers during long gaming sessions. This Dell model’s blue-backlit keyboard felt crisp, snappy, and responsive but a bit shallow to us, so it was not as comfortable after a few hours of gaming or typing as some of the other laptops we tested. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but we do prefer the feel of the keyboards on the Lenovo Y530 and Asus TUF Gaming FX504GM.
The mouse is a bit longer than most, but smaller than many of the 'ergonomic' mice. It fits my larger hands comfortably which many smaller mice don't. My wife has smaller hands and finds it comfortable to use. I have several young children and they have no problems with it either. the mouse is pleasantly symmetrical, and while nice to look at and fit in smaller pockets, my hand is not symmetrical. I have a thumb on one side and a pinky on the other. I would say like most people, but I haven't met most people. this leaves your ring finger kind of hanging and your ... full review

The Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM 15.6-inch has been a top recommendation in this guide for some time. The Aspire E 15 E5-576-392H is a new addition their budget family, and packs even more of a punch at an even lower price tag. While it features the same Intel HD Graphics 620, it features the newest 8th Generation Intel Core i3-8130U dual-core processor that runs alongside a decent 6GB of RAM.

Though, as with most budget laptops, you will get a slower 5400rpm hard drive. However, seeing as more and more of us are moving over to digital copies of our games it makes sense to remove the DVD drive and replace it with a HDD caddy and a good SDD. This will allow you to reap all the major benefits that an SSD offers for gaming and day-to-day use.
Powered by an Intel Core i5 7th Gen processor and 8 GB of RAM, this model runs your games effortlessly and makes multitasking smooth and fast. Thanks to its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, with 4 GB of dedicated graphics memory, this laptop provides a truly fluid and gorgeous gaming experience. This laptop with the Windows 10 Home operating system also features a 39.6-cm (15.6) display that comes with a Full HD LED-backlit anti-glare display.
For proper functioning of GPU, it is essential to have VRAM of their own. This is beneficial in storing different frames, textures and other required properties for getting frames for the monitor. Finding out how much you require may be tricky. Hence, it is better to go for a laptop with as much VRAM as possible. You can buy a laptop with 3-4 VRAM. If you have reduced budget, you can opt for 2 GB VRAM. You, however, need to ensure that the resolution of the gaming laptop is 1080P.
Clevo is king of the hill in terms of true DTR machines, and the P870TM is their latest incarnation, featuring up to a Core i9-9900K desktop class CPU, and up to SLI GTX 1080 for the ultimate in performance. As a true DTR you can outfit it with 64 GB of DDR4, and basically whatever combination of storage you'd like. The 1920x1080 144 Hz G-SYNC display is on the low-side in terms of resolution, but with the high refresh the gaming will be incredibly smooth, since this is one of the few laptops that can easily drive the maxium refresh rate on this resolution. Being a DTR though, you could also just connect it to a UHD display on your desk as well.
As far as RAM is concerned, there’s really not all that much to be said. Entry-level laptops generally have 8 GB of RAM which is enough for gaming. More expensive computers are often equipped with 16 GB or 32 GB of RAM which could be useful if you are a frequent user of graphics design or video editing software. With the exception of EVGA models, no laptop is able to adjust its RAM frequency beyond JEDEC certification limits.
OriginPC: OriginPC's default design typically won't turn heads, but they are the go-to-guys when it comes to customization. From custom paint jobs, thermal compounds to a TV Tuner, as long as you have the money, the sky's the limit. OriginPC's standard warranty offers lifetime 24/7 tech support and even offers a dead-pixel warranty in case of a defective display.

The HP pavilion 17 1BQ14UA 17.3-inch has not received much criticism about its touchpad or keyboard, but one user did point out that the there is no light indicating when the Numpad is on, and their is no light indicating that the laptop is on, which one usually finds on the actual power button. The battery life of around 5 hours is average, so you will need to be near an outlet if you plan on using your laptop away from home. The speakers are also positioned at the bottom of the laptop, which is said to dull down the overall audio quality.

The Lenovo Z50-75 is undoubtedly the best-specced gaming laptop under $500, but if you prefer to have a gaming laptop with the more prominent 17-inch display, then you can buy Lenovo Ideapad 320. It has the 17.3 inch HD LED display with the resolution of 1600 x 900 and even it packs in enough power to run most of the games at decent settings. It is powered by Intel Core i5-7200U, and it has 8GB of RAM for multitasking. The integrated Intel 620 graphics of the kaby lake CPU are powerful enough to run games like CS GO at around 60fps. So, Ideapad 320 is also a good value for money option if you want to buy a 17-inch gaming laptop in your budget of 500 dollars. | Check price and read reviews of it on Amazon
"Love it!...Good Mouse...I'm sure the mouse is built quite well, but my Logitech MX Anywhere 2 (a portable laptop mouse) feels more solid than the G305....The up to 12,000 dpi sensor technology in the G series optical mice is impressive, and honestly I would recommend anyone who spends a decent amount of time in spreadsheets or especially diagramming using a mouse purchase a gaming mouse for those uses as well - the high quality sensors make those jobs much easier."

Nowadays, most LCD displays for gaming laptops have a matte finish which makes them less susceptible to reflections. Other factors to consider are a display’s luminosity, color fidelity, and its range of displayed colors. Manufacturers sometimes promote their displays based on these characteristics (however, you should always consult the tests performed by specialized technology reviewers in order to verify the veracity of these claims).

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060: Laptops with 1060 cards can play taxing games like Mass Effect: Andromeda or Witcher 3 without sacrificing some of the cooler visual eye candy, including water reflections and natural-looking hair at 1920 x 1080. You might have to tweak the settings a bit at 4K, but not too much. Even better, you can hook up your Rift or Vive headset up for a mobile plug-and-play VR experience.

After picking our hardware criteria, we scoured the websites of major gaming laptop manufacturers like Acer, Alienware, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer, and Samsung. We also browsed boutique makers such as Clevo, Digital Storm, iBuypower, Origin PC, and Xotic PC, but few of those sell configurations that meet our hardware criteria and budget; selecting every component can get very expensive very fast, so customizing isn’t ideal for buyers on a tight budget.
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We tested the laptops using BioShock Infinite’s benchmarking mode and by playing half an hour of The Witcher 3 on ultra with VSync off. We measured the laptops’ internal temperature using HWMonitor and measured the surface temperature at various points on the keyboard and underside using an IR thermometer. We tested each laptop’s screen using some of the Lagom LCD monitor test pages, and used each for several workdays to get a feel for its keyboard, trackpad, screen, and speakers.
The Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM is currently our top recommended gaming laptop under $500. It features integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics powered by the latest Intel i3 Kaby Lake processor and next generation connectivity such as USB 3.1 Type-C and Bluetooth 4.1. Despite weak gaming performance for most modern games, it holds its own with an unbeatable price to performance ratio compared to its competitors, clocking in at a $100 or more cheaper than many similarly specced laptops such as the Inspiron I3567 and HP Pavilion 17 1BQ14UA below.
GPU or the graphics processing unit is considered to be the most vital part of the gaming laptops. This chip is doing the hard work, thereby providing you the eye candy. It is recommended to choose a laptop with a powerful GPU for running the most demanding games. The GTX 760M or Geforce GTX 850M happens to be the least requirement for those gaming laptops. You can also go for the laptop with GPU of 800 or GeForce GTX 700 series as they are recommended for the games of today.
Avram Piltch is Tom's Hardware's editor-in-chief. When he's not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you'll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
In terms of display size, a 15-inch screen is the sweet spot for a gaming laptop. You can buy larger 17-inch displays, but this can jack up the weight to way beyond 5 pounds. We've seen 12-pound "portables" in the gaming sector that will definitely weigh down your backpack. We recommend at least a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-resolution) screen. Larger displays are capable of giving you higher-than-1080p resolutions, but choose wisely, as a resolution of QHD+ (3,200 by 1,800 pixels, and uncommon) or 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels, a bit more common) will boost the final cost twice: first for the panel, and second for the higher-quality graphics chip you'll need to drive it to its full potential.
Gaming Laptops have evolved in a big way over the years with the increasing power of the device and the decreasing size. Flipkart has lined up some of the best gaming laptops including MSI GV series laptop, Dell Inspiron Gaming Laptops, Acer Predator Helios, Alienware Gaming laptops and more for you to buy under exciting offers and discounts. One must consider factors like the GPU, with the NVIDIA GeForce being one of the best, the RAM, the CPU and the drive while looking to buy gaming laptops online. Be you a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer, Flipkart has exactly the specifications you are looking to have in a gaming laptop and you can zero in on what to buy very easily on this platform.